[E] You got a side [A]that wants more space
[G#m7] 'Cause every day [A]starts like a race
[E]You got a side [A]that loves that style
But to [G#m7]fit in those shoes [A]gonna take a while
[E] Today life's got you running
[Am7] Tomorrow big things are coming
[Asus2]That's why [E]Nationwide is [A]on your [E]side

Go ahead, listen, then come back. Did you notice that I left out the second-best chord in the song? The first five times I listened, I missed it, but the last line is really:

[Asus2]That's why [E]Nationwide is [A]on [Am]your [E]side

That’s two iv’s in a short commercial!
In the “best chords in a commercial” world championships, this edges out the two VI’s in the Wingman commercial:

[Emaj7] One day [Amaj7]your little guy's be[Emaj7]hind the [Amaj7]wheel
[Emaj7] It's ok[Amaj7]ay, your mom side will [Emaj7]find a way to [B6]deal
[Emaj7] You [Amaj7]built this business up [Emaj7]from the [Amaj7]ground
[Emaj7] Soon [Amaj7]your retired side will [Emaj7]pass it on [F#]down
[C#m7] Every [Amaj7]day brings something new
[C#m7] So much to look [Amaj7]forward to
[E]Nationwide is [A]on your [E]side

…and it has a pretty great II (“soon your retired side will pass it on dow-ow-own“), though I like the other one better.
I really want to hear an Am there on “look forward to”, but even though I try to hear iv’s everywhere, I can’t make it happen here. Dear Tori Kelly: please make that a iv.

There are three diatonic major chords in the major scale: I, IV, and V. For today, let’s go with the key of D, so that’s D, G, and A. Sometimes in rock and pop we like to mix up the bass notes a little but keep the major-chord theme, and do a I/V, or a V/I, or whatever. All told there are nine combinations of these three major chords and possible bass notes, including the boring ones (D/D, G/G, A/A). Without the boring ones, you’ve got six: D/G, D/A, G/D, G/A, A/D, and A/A.

Why this lesson in combinatorics? Did this turn into a f’ing math blog?

Hold that thought, we’ll come back to it.

The theme song from “The Greatest American Hero” has pulled into a close second on my favorite-theme-songs list.

Be[D]lieve it or [D/F#]not I'm walki[G]ng on ai[G/B]r
I never t[D]hought I could f[D/F#]eel so free[G] [G/A]
[D]Flying a[D/F#]way on a w[G]ing and a [G#m7b5]prayer

Your ear totally thinks that last line is going to end with G → A or similar, since you’re totally primed for that from the first two lines… but wait! Instead, it’s splendid chromatic bass movement and a splendid m7b5 chord.

(3) Rotation of the 1/4/5 chords over stationary roots, as in the intro:

[A/D] [D] [A/D] [D]
[A/G] [D/G] [A/G] [D/G]
[D/A] [G/A] [A] [A]

If you’re keeping score at home, that’s all possible combinations of 1/4/5 over 1/4/5 other than the boring ones (X/X). Combinatorically complete, and not in a gratuitous “math person writes a jazz song way”!

It also has a key change, which means I should go update my post about TV theme songs with key changes, though I’m not in a huge rush to do that, as I’m basically neutral on this key change. However, apropos to this thread, it suffers from totally-random-stupid-bridge syndrome, which is why it sits just behind Growing Pains on my list of favorite theme songs. Hashtag #bridgesorandom.

(Super-random bridge)
This is too good to be [Fmaj7]true
Look at [Ebmaj7]me, falling for you [G/A] [A] [G/A] [A]
(Back to our comfortable chorus vibe in D)
Be[D]lieve it or [D/F#]not, be[G]lieve it or [G/B]not
Be[D]lieve it or [D/F#]not, be[G]lieve it or [G/B]not
(Unremarkable key change to E)
Be[E]lieve it or [E/G#]not I'm walki[A]ng on ai[A/C#]r...

You wouldn’t think a TV theme song would be long enough to support a key change, but I’m thinking of a popular theme song that had a legitimate key change. If it matters, when I say “popular”, this might be another one of those cases where it matters that I’m a little older than everyone else and you may have never heard of the show at all. So, that’s a useful hint: think of a show you might never have heard of.

It’s a pretty good key change. The melody changes a little at the key change in an interesting way.

…shortcuts for playing fancy chords that have more notes than you can handle because you don’t really play the piano.

I like to think I can “fake it” OK on the piano. I know basic major and minor chords, and also I learned “Desperado” when I was 17 years old, so I can always sit down at a party, play “Desperado”, and walk away with people assuming I have a million more ready to go. I recommend this strategy for everyone. I mean, don’t actually pick Desperado, because then the game is up for me, but pick one slow song with a few fancy chords in it, and most non-musicians in a room will assume you’re as good as the person who plays Chopin right after you.

With that said, I’m always looking for ways to squeeze more functionality out of my mediocre piano ability. In particular, I usually have to take the “drop all the chord extensions” strategy, e.g. by playing m7’s and m9’s and m11’s and mwhatever’s as just min. This is what they call a “tell”, and it quickly shatters the illusion that I know what’s going on. I do write a blog about nerdy chord theory stuff, so I know what an F11 is, but my piano-playing-brain simply can’t process anything that defies the following two axioms of piano playing…

Dan’s two axioms of piano playing:

The left hand plays the root of every chord.

The right hand only has to play three notes at a time, and only in the shape of a chord I know.

These assumptions cause a rift in the fabric of the universe when I see the aforementioned F11, or even its much simpler four-note cousin F7.
But there’s hope! Using the time-tested strategy of memorizing stuff that’s too much to actually process in real time, one can pick up a few chord voicings that follow those two axioms (axia?) and still represent the chord you’re trying to play.

So, summarizing:

The tables in this post are a shortcut to help mediocre piano players (like me) who can only deal with 3 notes at a time in the right hand – and only the root in the left hand – play extended chords.

The basic approach is “upper structure voicing”: playing a complete chord in the right hand that becomes part of a different chord when you put the two hands together. Upper structure voicing in general could in theory make use of a zillion notes in each hand, so we’re interested in a specific subset of upper structure voicing, so more specifically:

This post is about upper-structure-voiced chords that don’t require playing anything other than the root in the left hand, and only require three notes in the right hand.

…the Doctor of Rock sets the definitive standard for capitalization and punctuation in song lyrics.

If you play guitar and have ever used the Internet, you are likely aware that (a) the Internet is full of guitar chords for pop songs and (b) guitar chords for pop songs rank only slightly above YouTube comments in the care given to proofreading. I will not regale you with examples of poor capitalization and punctuation in song lyrics; suffice it to say that it’s a wild world out there.

But is it really a lack of care? Or are the masses of chord-posters yearning – desperate, even – for guidance? Do they not seek a North Star to which they can look when they ask themselves the deep, soul-interrogating questions we all must ask when chord-posting? “Should I put the entirety of ‘The Gambler’ and half of ‘Piano Man’ in quotation marks?” “Is ‘one lump or two?’ really being posed as a question, and if so, is it a different question than ‘do you take sugar?’?”. “Did the Doctor of Rock just deliberately create an intensely complicated series of nested questions to make his point and require four consecutive punctuation marks?”

I say it’s time to give them that North Star. I hereby present the Doctor of Rock’s Conventions for Punctuation and Capitalization in Song Lyrics (DRCPCSL) (2017 edition).

…songs whose verse and chorus are the same progression in different keys.

From: The Doctor of Rock

To: Both of my regular readers

“Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” does a neat little trick with keys…

Verse chords:

It's [G]getting late have you seen my mates
Ma [F]tell me when the boys get here
It's [C]seven o'clock and I want to rock
Want to [G]get a belly full of beer

Chorus chords:

[C] Don't give us none of your aggravation
We [Bb]had it with your discipline
'Cause [F]Saturday night's alright for fighting
[C]Get a little action in

So it does the I → bVII → IV → I / mixolydian / Sweet Child O’ Mine / Sweet Home Alabama / Royals progression, which is already a little key-ambiguous (as per a previous post), then changes key by a fourth.

Are there other songs where the verse and chorus are the same progression but in different keys?

…and by “it” I mean “spent a lot of time thinking about big changes in vocal rhythm from one verse to the next”.

I don’t know very much about writing a blog, but I know that if you let yourself go back and make changes to old posts, you’ll never write new posts. So, rule of thumb: unless someone calls to your attention that you went on a racist tirade in the middle of a post, leave it alone.

…if this post were one of the songs this post is about, it would have already changed key.

From: Dan

To: Ian

I was listening to the Grease soundtrack yesterday (BECAUSE IT’S FANTASTIC THAT’S WHY) and noticed that this nominally-ultra-conventional I → vi → IV → V song might be the earliest legitimate key change I can think of in a pop song:

[Gm]Head under [Bb]water
And they [Dm]tell me to breathe
[F]easy for a while

Do you hear that as vi → I → iii → V, or ii → IV → vi → I? I.e., if you start right from the beginning, do you hear it in Bb or F, and when are you sure? Do you think it matters that the Bb is really Bbsus2? (I can’t think of a Isus2 off the top of my head…)